I could not really get into this book. It kinda felt like a book in a series that I hadn't read, and I frequently found myself completely lost.
The deaths in the battle to reclaim their homeland were kind of pointless. She invented characters purely for the purpose of dying and even those who existed before they didn't (?) were very minor and generally forgettable.
Personally I would have killed off Perri the savage who was close to the main character but the reader didn't really feel attached to and Froi because he was weird, inconsistent and a rapist but still in Finnikins little posse of travelling protagonists and worth an "Aww..."
I honestly I did not get the whole business with "her blood must be shed for you to be (her) king". Sorry, how does that work out?? What difference does the "her" really make? And the entire "If I/you were king" demented little public love speech was honestly quite sickening. I can't put my finger on why, but eerghh. You go to propose and in the process you also explain to her your intentions for her nation? Wat?
I have to say, Tesadora was a terrible, terrible character. Her race has been near extinguished by the previous ruling classes nobility and she seems very bittter about that, yet she inconsistently seems to favour Beatriss (who needs to spell her name right) who seems to be alive in place of Tesadora's mother. And the whole business about her having sex with Perri the nutcase who incidently seems quite stable and generally boring to me, really doesn't make sense as she has this embittering hatred of men and he tried to drown her several times throughout her childhood. Travanion has a nice name, but is also a ridiculously inconsistent character. He has a driving loyalty towards all Lumaterians but doesn't escape to rally his little chums and go rescue them from their perils until Finnikin makes a jolly visit to him in prison, at which point he beats Finnikin into a pulp only pausing to stop thrashing him just before the boy passes out to tell him that he is indeed fighting his father. Would it not make more sense to have told him that before? No, no, even though Travanion seems to love his child more then all Lumaterians, he still knocks the poor sod out. I love Melina Marchetta and On the Jellicoe Road is possibly amongst the finest literature I have ever encountered. However, the plot of this book was like a sieve and none of the politics really made sense. Osteria is allied with Sorel, the same Sorel that is the most dangerous country in Skuldenore to Lumaterians but the prince still seems to want to marry Isaboe. Both Topher and Finnikin felt that Charyn was a barbarian country but Sorel was dangerous. But..... Isn't Charyn the "barbarian" country that formed an extremely clever and destructive plot to overthrow the original Lumaterian government and install a puppet so as to invade an extremely wealthy country through it? Would you not think that perhaps this place would be slightly more hostile? Apparently not. And on Finnikins first documented voyage to Belegonia, he tells Lord August of a threat to Belegonia in the form of Charyn invading through Lumatere. But, um, forgive me if I am wrong... but isn't Lumateria completely innaccessible? Is that not the point of the whole novel?? So uh, good luck with that, my Charynese chums... Anyway. This book's plot was like a sieve attacked by a mad axeman, as in, full of holes. And all the characters, espiecally the men as in (as Marita Thomson says) most of them are completely obnoxious. Sorry for my long and sarcastic rant. And that was a great review by the way. *clears throat* Mmmm.
OK. And Seranonna sounds like a type of pasta.
That's it.
Really.
